Candy Girls: Baskin Robbins Soft Candy, Mint Chocolate Chip

The lure of the "New!" tag is hard to resist, even when the candy to which it's affixed seems somewhat appalling. Like chewy ice cream. This is yet another instance where we don't think the candy designers thought very hard about the flavor/texture combination they were creating. Otherwise how would you explain the appeal of turning something cold and creamy into a chewy cube? In any case, we Candy Girls have brave tongues and strong teeth. We aren't afraid of a little sugar and corn syrup and dry milk solids and more corn syrup. Bring it on!

With Aubrey away on vacation (and gathering IKEA candies for future testing), Liz didn't feel right keeping this sticky oddity to herself, so invited a couple of guest testers to join in the fun.

First Impressions:

The chews are gummy, aqua colored blocks dotted with little brown specs. Individually wrapped, they come in a bright pink inner pouch inside a big cardboard box. Upon opening the box, the scent is not so much food-like as it is perfumey and a bit soapy. There's a strong chemical mint aroma.

Joey: Well first off, the package looks like a box of dryer sheets.

Heather (covering up the image of the candy on the box): They should have left off the picture of the actual product and just left the picture of the ice cream. Because the ice cream looks good.Liz: Wrapped up, they look like calcium chews.

Taste:

The chews are very strange. Not as taffy-like as we were expecting, and instead softer and more grainy.

Heather: Hmm, actually the flavor is perfumey and soapy, too.

Liz: The mint is bitter tasting.

Heather: There's a point here where it actually comes very close to tasting like mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Liz: Yeah, like when it's not in your mouth any more. The aftertaste is very similar.

Jason: This is obviously Baskin and Robbins' solution to finding a use for the bottom-of-the-ice-cream-tub scrapings.

All: Yes!

Conclusions:

This is a strange candy, seemingly designed only for candy testers to buy and discuss on their candy review blogs. Why anyone would buy this otherwise is beyond us.

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